South Carolina’s move from Under Armour to Nike is official, and the change is already showing up in the details that Gamecock fans notice first: the shade of garnet, the jerseys on the rack, and even the old gear being cleared out of storage.
The athletics department made the switch last Wednesday, closing the book on a 19-year partnership with Under Armour. What looks like a simple logo change is touching just about everything around the program, from apparel colors to NIL opportunities.
One of the first things fans are seeing is that Nike’s version of South Carolina garnet does not line up perfectly with the school’s official Pantone 202. The difference stands out most on garnet cotton T-shirts, which lean closer to Alabama crimson than the traditional Gamecock look.
Nike organizes its partner schools into color groups such as “Team Royal Blue” and “Team Scarlet University Red,” and South Carolina was likely placed in “Team Crimson” because no existing Nike team matches Gamecock garnet exactly.
On the football side, the first wave of Nike jerseys looks almost the same as the Under Armour version, aside from the swoosh, the fabric and the slightly lighter garnet tone. That limited change makes sense given the timeline: the deal was signed last August, leaving only about 10 months before Wednesday’s launch.
The bigger uniform changes are still coming. Under the contract, which runs through 2036, Nike has committed to a full redesign of at least three football jerseys by 2030, along with an alternate uniform tied to an energy program that includes more than 15 elite college football programs.
Nike is also making its presence felt in the NIL space. The company signed five Gamecocks to its Blue Ribbon Elite program: football players LaNorris Sellers, Nyck Harbor and Dylan Stewart, plus women’s basketball players Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts.
That puts South Carolina in a small group of schools officially part of the program. LSU, Texas and rival Clemson are the other three, and the Blue Ribbon Elite roster now includes about 80 student-athletes total.
The transition is also creating a cleanup job behind the scenes. South Carolina is donating roughly 25 pallets of leftover Under Armour gear to the South Carolina State Surplus, and the items are expected to go on sale in mid-August at the warehouse at 1441 Boston Ave. in West Columbia.
At the same time, the new Nike era drew a crowd on campus. Fans started lining up at the Russell House at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, and the biggest spender of the morning was Jessica Koumas, whose eight-item purchase came to more than $500 as she bought for family and friends.
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Shane Beamer and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles spent part of their recent discussion pointing to the kind of newcomers South Carolina was hoping to find when the portal opened. On defense, the Gamecocks are looking at Tomiwa Durojaiye, Kelby Collins, Noah Clark, Jordan Thomas and safety JZavien Currence as players who could help quickly, while the offense has its own group of names to watch in D.J. Black, Nitro Tuggle and Sequel Patterson.
For a team trying to firm up a few troubling spots before the season gets rolling, the encouraging part is that several of those additions are already being talked about as real options, not just future projects. Beamer also singled out the defensive tackles as a group that should give USC a better immediate look up front, which is exactly the kind of early answer the staff needs while the bigger question is how quickly the rest of the new pieces settle into place. [Read more 🡒]